Friday, April 26, 2013

I've been trying to get my head wrapped around the whole "mom" thing, with varying degrees of success.

A few weeks ago, a dear friend evidently believed me about the dresser drawer thing (she can sleep in a dresser drawer. When she cries, I'll shut the drawer. Win win.) and drove here for the weekend from Nashville with a nursery in her truck. She brought a crib, mattress, bedding, a dresser/changing table, a swing, assorted other things. And then she worked her tail off emptying shelves, moving the shelving units to the basement, reassembling them and then hauling all of the craft stuff downstairs to the new location. When she was done, I had a nursery. Holy crap.

And then I went home for my birthday, and my friends there threw me a beautiful shower and I came home with Petunia LOADED with assorted baby stuff. It occasionally freaks me out, how very very happy everyone else is about this but it has reinforced that I have really fantastic friends.

And then last Thursday happened. It's been raining here a lot. Wednesday night, a friend came over and we made the bunny magnets that will be the favors for my shower here and at 10 pm that night, the basement was dry. Well, as dry as my basement ever gets when it's raining but I'm prepared for that - most everything's in plastic bins or up on pallets or something.

Tiny Little Bunny Magnets, In Process

I woke up Thursday morning to a slightly different scenerio. I had knee high water in my driveway and 4.5 feet of water in my basement.

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My Porch, The Bottom Step Of Which Is Completely Submerged

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My House, With Water Lapping On All Four Sides

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To The East

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To The West

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To The South

My Neighbor, Serving as Water Taxi

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﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿The water rose and fell freakishly fast - by Thursday afternoon, it had receded outside completely and was nearly gone from my basement as well. That left the clean up.

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By Thursday Afternoon

﻿﻿I've lost a lot. And it's not over yet - all of my power tools were submerged, so we washed them and are letting them dry but they may be gone. Same with my washer and dryer. It remains to be seen how much of my (very expensive) cross stitch fabric can be washed and salvaged. (I've been hanging it on the line to dry until I can wash it.) Most of my Christmas decorations are gone. I *think* we managed to save most of my grandmother's ceramics. I have A LOT in the garage to go through, and a lot of it won't survive. I have pictures drying on several flat surfaces, and more to spread out. My neighbor put it very well when she said that it was "1000 little hurts."

It could be so much worse. I could have fried myself when I went plunging into the water to retrieve the tea set that my grandmother made. (Irony - it was on top of the heavy old metal file cabininet that didn't flinch and was probably the safest thing in the basement.) It could be like the house across the street - with the sandstone foundation that washed away, leaving the house condemned and them with a day to remove all of their possessions.

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Clean-Up

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So. If disasters come in threes, whatever is next is probably going to send me to my knees 'cause I'm kind of wobbly right now.﻿